Forever Family Revamp
by Masstheory
Summary: (WIP Title, Rewrite of Forever Family Fiction) "My family is my strength and my weakness." -Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
1. AN

**Ah! It's good to be back. I know it's been a while since I added my recent addition onto the Original Forever Family. A couple months now, but I think I'm finally ready to toss myself back into the battlefield. Namely having a steady wifi connection at the moment, and having played through the entire series again (Even Andromeda for the first time) For those that aren't aware of my recent post or the reason why I am currently revamping the Forever Family series, I'll basically post this:**

 _ **"A lot of things add up to the thing for my absence. Some personal, some not-so-much, and others just because of my own fault. Namely, procrastination and laziness. A lot has happened in the time I've been gone obviously.** **Lost my computer, and my flashdrive, so a lot of planning and already done writing has gone with it. Which to be entirely honestly, is not entirely a bad thing. I'm sure it's just me, but looking back on old writing, I can see a lot of places where I went wrong. And honestly, I want to start my comeback by fixing it. I know it seems like a cheap excuse, to come back to the site after so long, and stick to the comfort of my Forever Family series. But I want you to know that I am not going to just rehash the FF series, reuploading the same things with updated stuff. So, I'm going to tell what I plan to do differently this time.**_

 _ **1\. I plan to try and avoid simply stealing the game's scenes. I did this a lot with the romance scenes and well….in general. A lot of the scenes were just from the game, with a couple of added tidbits here and there. Which is fine in some cases, but not as often as I did it. Honestly, if you guys wanted the game all over again, you would just pick up a controller and play it.**_

 _ **2\. I'm going to be less heavy-handed. I….did not write subtlely at all. And characterization suffered for it. The romances were heavy handed, the characters were heavy handed in their personality, and so on. I'm going to try and be a bit better about this. I've felt like I've gotten better at writing as I've gone, but still, I rely on you guys to tell me when I'm in the wrong. So please, don't feel like you have to be kind in the reviews.** _

_**3\. Opinions getting in the way of writing. Yeah…..looking back on Forever Family now, I really shouldn't have posted three chapters worth of rants and opinions on the story. And now I do have somewhat different opinions. I still dislike Diane Allers, worst character in Mass Effec period and I'm still a pretty much a Talimancer, but I'm not going to go on witch hunts vs Liara fandoms or anything.**_

 _ **3\. Trying to focus more on an over-arcing story. This one really isn't a problem, but I was clearly focused more on the romance aspect of the game, between the Shepards and the Dextro-romances. So, I'm going to try and balance this with telling a story. Not every chapter is going to be about the romance, and I'm going to do more with the space i have. After all, there is no space limitations on chapters.**_

 _ **4\. The characters will feel like characters. I did rely a bit too heavily on the people who have played the game before knowing these characters and how they acted. Anyone who was reading fanfiction without playing the game, though probably rare, was probably confused. This also falls into me stealing from the game too much, instead of trying to give these characters my own little spin, I was just using the game's version of them.** _

_**Other than that, I don't have much else to say. I'll probably end up loading this up as another update to Forever Family, or perhaps as the start of the….good lord, I've fallen into the reboot trap. Still…..it might be uploaded in the Reboot of Forever Family. In the end, I might end up doing both, to let the old fans of Forever Family know that I am not active again, and that a hopefully better version of the story is coming out soon. I am looking for a decent name for the series, as calling it Forever Family, Reboot, seems like a bad idea. And no! I am not calling it Forever Family GO! If you suggest it, I will find where you live and you will regret the suggestion!"**_

 **So, the time has finally come. For those who read the original series, there will be enough changes that I hope this keeps your attention. The first chapter is pretty much the same, as I still like it, so I'm going to rapid upload two chapters today. The first four/five chapters indeed a good portion of what happens in the games, but that's just so I can set the story out there. For those curious, I did indeed decide not to go all the way back to ME1 in this case. I tried, but...well, honestly, I wasn't really sure what I could do with it, so I couldn't justify writing a whole series around that ideal.**

 **With this new series, I really hope you guys don't feel obligated to be nice in the reviews. If there is something you feel is wrong or needs to be fixing, let me know. I only ask that the reviews be constructive and not just "I didn't like this chapter. Delete it!"**

 **To put it simply, the choices made in this story involving ME1 are: Wrex, the Council and Kirrahe are saved, Ashley Williams Killed on Virmire, Rachni Queen spared, and a bunch of other small decisions that are too long to list. For now the story will be rated T, as there will be swearing from a few characters (I mean, Jack is almost a R rated character by herself) but for the most part, there is nothing too much off yet. If you feel the rating is inappropiate and needs to be raised, please, let me know.**

 **As always, I hope you Read, Enjoy, and Review!**


	2. Chapter 1

**Whelp, here we are. Honestly, for those of the original, this is pretty much a slightly updated, but mostly the same as the original chapter. Tried to make it less clunky. For those of you that are new, simply put...this is a story with two Shepards. Twin Shepards! Read, Enjoy, Review.**

* * *

Johanna put her cigarette in her mouth and took a long inhale from the cancer stick as the robber held his gun at her head. At first glance, she was a person that most rational people wouldn't mess with. Light Hopelite armor made her look more the part of a strong frontline fighter, more so than she actually was, because by no means was she a woman incapable of handling herself. However, she didn't wear the helmet that came with it, giving away her unusually thin form and medium length bright red hair. Bored green eyes stared down the man with the gun, their cold malice trying to warn the man from continuing his robbery. A long thin scar started from the left corner of her mouth and trailed all the way to her left eye. The robber pressed the cold barrel of the gun against her head and bared his teeth. In response, she blew the smoke from her cigarette in his face, clearly seeing this man as an obvious junkie. "Are you gonna demand something? Or just stare at me?" She finally mentioned, the man not demanding money or anything of value yet.

"I want your credits!" He yelled at the top of his voice. Shepard sighed and rolled her eyes, not sure why she had expected something more interesting. God forbid she runs into a hair thief once in a while.

"Nothing more interesting? I have a Karpov X and top of the line armor, but you want just regular credits. That's just fucking stupid. Most people will hold, what 1,000, maybe 2,000 credits at one time best case scenarios and you'll wipe through that on your junk in a couple of weeks. This stuff can go for over ten thousand credits each and that's if you don't haggle." She badgered the man. The man growled at this and pressed the gun harder into her forehead. She didn't even take a step back, staring at the man with as much warning as she could without pulling her gun and pistol whipping the bastard.

"NOW!" Johanna sighed and flicked her cigarette towards the ground, just behind the junkie, realizing there was no point in trying to reason with this junkie. The man made the mistake of glancing at her cigarette as it fell, that fatal mistake that she had been hoping for. The moment his eyes left her, following the trail of the cigarette as it soared past him, she threw her hands up, grabbing the guy by the wrist and forcing his arm up as he squeezed off a shot in surprise. Once she was sure that the gun was safely above her head, she dove forward and drove an armored elbow into the man's chest. As he stumbled back, she jumped forward and sent a vicious kick into the same place she hit with her elbow, sending the man to the floor. Then drawing her pistol, she placed a single boot on the man's neck and zeroed the sights on his head, her finger hovering above the trigger. Everything went silent. The man's eyes looked up at the woman, terrified and bulging as his air supply was slowly cut off by her boot while green eyes returned the stare, even and uncaring. Then, without warning, she collapsed her pistol and kicked the man's pistol in between two nearby crates with the leg that had been choking him before returning it to his neck.

"You are lucky I have somewhere to be, jackass." She told him, before taking her foot off of his neck and then walked away from him. She didn't have the time to deal with C-Sec and their investigators. The man scrambled to grab the gun but stopped when a grenade slapped on the crate the gun was in, prompting him to scramble away just in time to avoid the explosion. Johanna smiled to herself as she though Should have left well enough alone asshole before activating her tactical cloak.

* * *

She slipped past the two guards at the entrance without difficulty, as they were too busy holding off the people who weren't permitted. It angered her that so many people would attempt to get in. While some may have genuine reasons for being there, many of them clearly only wanting in on the publicity which came at the man's expense. Still, she couldn't complain too much, giving her enough of a distraction that none of the guards noticed the occasional glimmer as the tactical cloak readjusted to its surroundings as she calmly strode right by them. Once inside, she looked around at her surroundings.

It was in an Alliance dreadnought, directly in the hangar. The SSV Kilimanjaro was it's name. Responsible for bringing a ton of firepower and an equal amount of support craft into the battle. Of course, given the scenario, the ships had been cleared out and replaced with cheap metal chairs, set up in several rows. Almost all of them had Alliance Marines sitting in them, backs straight and heads held high. The first row on the left side was the only one that held any type of diversity among its participants. A Krogan, Turian, Quarian, and Asari sat together, not at one another's throats and without any type of tension between them, the Asari and the Quarian weeping while the Turian and Krogan offered silent mourning. Like damn true soldiers. Several humans did sit with them, but all but a few lacked the military uniform that marked them as a marine, too few in number to consider.

On a platform that stood in front of the two groups of chairs, sat another diversity of people, not only in species but in class as well. They were the councilors, admirals, commanders and ambassadors that were among the citadel and in the battle that had happened not too long ago, many showing their face out of respect but a few had a personal reason for being there, mostly because they owed their lives to the man who died. Whether they actually cared for him or not was another matter altogether. Sure, general respect was throughout the entire room at this man as was to be expected, but she had the feeling only the first row truly felt a sense of loss at his death. Sighing with irritation, she slowly began to walk up the aisle.

Despite being invisible, she felt as though all the eyes were on her as she walked, remembering the first time she had to do this. She had a flower then, a bright red rose, plucked directly from earth. It was always her favorite, having heard countless stories about their beauty. This time, it was something different. It was a pair of dog tags, not the man's who had died, but sharing the first and last name nonetheless. It was old and rusted, still on actual metal despite the conversion to holotags. It had a certain rustic feel to it, one that almost made her homesick every time she looked at it. God, this walk was too slow. If only she could go faster without drawing attention. She may be invisible but she still could make enough noise to impress a Krogan baby if she wasn't trying to be quiet. At least, that what she had always been told in her youth.

When she reached the platform, her heart rate began to speed up and her throat closed. Why was this so hard? She had already shed any tears she had for this man, before dutifully wiping her eyes and pretending that it was common news. Johanna wished she could clear her throat but she knew the disembodied sound would draw attention. Now the hard part came. Slowly, she took her first step onto the platform where the councilors and the ambassadors stood. The platform squeaked slightly , only enough to draw the attention of the Turian ambassador, his alien hearing being the most superior of the group. She stood stock still, knowing that the more movement she made, the more likely the tactical cloak was to readjust and give her away. Thankfully, the turian shrugged to himself and returned back to the service as a scarred Admiral stepped forward to speak. She waited until he began his speech, ignoring his recited words to say at every soldier's funeral and used the distraction to pull herself up. This time, the turian ignored the squeaked, having thoroughly convinced himself that it was merely because of the number of people on the stage.

Each step took almost a full minute to take, the platform barely accommodating the few it already had on. She had barely reached the coffin as the Admiral finally gave way for the twenty-one gun salute. It was an ancient tradition, dating back into the 20th century almost. They still used the traditional guns, though there had been talk of switching to the first model of the Avenger rifle, which had been designed much like their predecessors in the Marine's hands. She remembered the first time those guns had been fired, how her heart raced and her mind went scared for a second. Those ancient guns were nothing like the guns now, clunky and loud, one shot enough to echo for miles. She remembered, like a scarred child, taking the hand nearest to her in comfort. Now, when they fired, she didn't even flinch, her only worry was if some idiot loaded his gun with an actual bullet that would ricochet of the interior of the ship.

She approached the coffin, a black and unexciting thing with only a monogram of N7 on the upper corner, where the left shoulder of the deceased should be. Another ancient tradition, though with slight modifications. She remembered how the first time she saw this, it wasn't N7 but a simple alliance mark, for a bland and ordinary soldier. Not like the coffin in front of her. One that got even the attention of the council, who no doubt hardly attended such events. She almost scoffed aloud at what would be said between those who truly grieved and those who were here purely for show. She anticipated yelling and screaming, and with a sliver of hope, maybe a few gunshots. However, circumstances would prevent her from watching such an event.

She noticed a picture, on a small stand near the edge of the platform. A much younger man was presented in the picture compared to the man in the coffin. This after all, was the teenage version of him, fresh off planet side and with a head full of delusions. His azure eyes stared determined into the camera, his mouth remaining neutral though anyone who knew him could tell he was fighting his constant smile. His head was freshly shaven, the style that remained throughout his career. His nose was crooked ever so slightly, not enough to notice by those who did not spend a long time studying his face and a small scar ran under his eye. His jaw was strong and blocky, the perfect fit for a man who had his aura of command and his abnormally large ears stuck out from beneath his military cap. A sad smile crossed her lips as her fingers edged near the picture.

She remembered the constant revered talks of the brave warriors in space and the idea of being the best of them all. Well, guess it wasn't a delusion. She touched the picture, lightly and with care, not only because she wanted to mask her presence. She remembered how on his first day of boot camp, his goofy grin got him yelled at constantly by the instructor, who failed to destroy it despite many tries. He remembered all the times he got in trouble because he hardly followed typical alliance protocol, such as addressing subordinates by their first names and asking personal questions rather than sticking to the jobs they were assigned. How the man ever came to command the most advanced stealth ship in the entire galaxy was beyond her reasoning. Johnathon Shepard, you are an asshole for dying.

She didn't delay much longer, knowing that soon, people would come onto the platform one at a time to pay their respect. Johnathon always wanted a funeral like he saw in the old movies, where people could pay their respects to his body before they spaced it towards the nearest sun. She never liked the idea of being spaced into the sun herself, the whole thing seeming as though it was ripped off from some cheesy sci-fi film. Though it seems like John wouldn't be getting his wish. They had to do the funeral closed casket, lacking a body to display since the real one got spaced in the Terminus systems somewhere and no one could find it. Barring that, he already had a plot with his name on it, in some special cemetery just for soliders, located near Alliance headquarters. The idea of using a VI had been tossed about however, many said it would be too disrespectful for those who knew him.

She lowered the dog tags in her hand onto the spot next to the picture, still hidden under her tactical cloak, she knew the moment she let go, it would become visible and the keen eyed people would finally notice her. Sighing, she paid her final respects and knew it was time to go. Say hi to them for me, asshole. However, before she let go, her eyes caught something that was right next to her intended spot for the current tags. She nodded, deciding upon something else, she went about her business.

* * *

She knew she had been spotted, judging by the harsh glare that she had felt the moment she had finished her business. She felt it until she left the dreadnought and turned down the alleyway that the junkie had attempted to mug her at. The keepers had already repaired the damaged caused by her explosion and even replaced the crates that she had turned to dust within the time she had accomplished her mission. So, why she was currently sitting on top of those crates, with her tactical cloak deactivated and in full lighting without her gun drawn, was something she couldn't quite fathom herself. Still, like Johnathon, her curiosity often got the better of her, and she had to meet the person who had seen through her theft. After all, her ego demanded as such.

She didn't wait long before an angry looking Turian rounded the corner, followed by a Krogan in bright red battlearmor. She remembered reading their files. One was a mercenary who worked with Saren and the other was a failed C-sec officer. They spotted her almost immediately, raising their weapons, both barrels lined up with vital spots on her. She didn't run, just put up her hands in defense as she sat a few feet above her head. "Who do you think you are?" The turian asked, his voice hoarse and filled with righteous anger. It almost made her laugh.

"That depends Garrus Vakarian. Who do you think I am?" She asked, lowering her hands and placing one on her knee as she stared down at them. The turian looked annoyed at her knowledge of his name, but his eyes never left her and his finger never left the trigger. He had good instincts it seemed.

"I think you're a common thief. Desecrating a great man's funeral with your petty theft." He told her. She chuckled at that.

"Keen eyes, to notice something a slight as that. Must be a sniper and have experience with military protocol. Your skills are largely underappreciated in C-Sec. That or I'm getting sloppy." She shrugged as she twirled the holotags on her fingers to confirm the accusations of the turian. "You'd make a good merc, if you ever get that stick out of your ass. As for you comment, well…..I am anything but common."

"I like this one. Shame I have to shoot her." Wrex laughed with amusement as he lowered his weapon to a non-vital spot. Garrus didn't follow his suit, choosing to keep his weapon trained on the woman in front of him.

"I want the holotags back." The turian demanded. "Toss them down and I promise, you'll just have to make a trip to prison and not the hospital.

"Sorry. Afraid I can't take you up on that. They're rightfully mine." She told him as she put the holotags around her neck. His eyes narrowed as only a turian's can and her shot her a look that put a hint of caution into her spine. She liked that feeling, having thought she was all but immune to it due to her line of business. She felt that a fight between her and this turian would be quite the show.

"A thief like you will only pawn them off onto the highest bidder and then it'll become the trophy to some scum on the universe." The turian accused once more, his finger pulling the trigger ever so slightly. She laughed once more at this, though this one was far less amused than her previous ones.

"As tempting as that'd be. I'm afraid I'll have to keep John's holotags. It'll be a nice reminder of what a pain in the ass he used to be. Maybe I'll frame them and keep them on my desk, as a constant reminder." She said as she looked down at the holotags. Out of instinct, she raised her biotic barrier as a bullet careened towards her, barely blocking the projectile with as powerful of a biotic barrier as she muster. "Shame he's gone." She continued without even looking up, pretending the drain on her energy never happened.

"I promise, I will be a much bigger pain in the ass if you don't give them back now." Garrus threatened as menacingly as he could. It wasn't that his threat wasn't scary, as he said it with as much malice and anger as he could possibly muster, it was just that Johanna had faced much larger and dangerous people that had told her the same thing though in other words and in other condition, so she hardly paid him mind in order to check a message that she had received in her omni-tool. Sighing with defeat as she read the message, she realized that playtime was over. A customer was already demanding another pair of GARDIAN cannons despite having got some last week. No doubt this would lead to the accusation that her current stock was underwhelming, probably bad, or in some sort of words that would earn him a discount of some kind, or at least he would think.

"Sorry, Garrus, but you could never be as much as a pain in the ass as my twin." With that, she activated her tactical cloak and leapt off the boxes. She heard the Krogan laughing with delight at the revelation of another Shepard.

"I like this family!" He declared as he sent a barrage of bullets in her direction but missed, bouncing off a nearby wall. She stopped when she finally out of range of the service pistol that the turian was using, thinking back to the former C-Sec operative. John sure did know how to pick his friends, both clearly ready to kill her over a lousy set of holotags that weren't even the original pair. Shame she couldn't meet them when her brother was still alive and kicking though it wouldn't have nearly been as much fun. With a slight laugh, she continued to leave, heading for the docks.


	3. Chapter 2

**The first original chapter to the new story. This one picks up and drops you into John Shepard shoes at the Cerberus Lazarus facility. Again, like I explained, this is mostly a revamp of the main mission though I've done my best to change it so that people don't think it's just a copy-paste of the story. There isn't much to say about the chapter without spoilage, so I'll let you get to it. Read, Enjoy, Review!  
**

* * *

It was the explosion that woke him up, rattling the lab equipment and himself wildly as it went off. He felt himself returning to consciousness, smelling the antiseptic of a medical lab and becoming aware of the chill coming from the air. The next thing he was aware of was the dull thudding in every part of his body. Even the attempt to move his arm was met with resistance, like an old hinge, refusing to move after years of lack of use let it rust and wither away. He did manage to finally move his arm, becoming more and more aware of his surroundings as he went. There was gunfire in the distance and it sounded like another explosion went off. He could hear some alarms, a little closer, warning of danger. Had he been in battle and been hit by a rocket? He'd heard how shellshock can do this to people, make them temporarily lose all sense of their surroundings and actions. No….that didn't sound right. Wait….someone was calling his name.

He opened his eyes, his eyes briefly blinded by the bright fluorescent lights above him. "Shepard, you need to wake up!" Another explosion sounded in the distance, shaking him and forcing him to open his eyes again, despite the pain it caused. He brought his hand up, his motor control returning to him as adrenaline flooded his system, and rubbing his jaw, which felt like it had just been hit by a Krogan. "Shepard, your scars aren't healed but I need you to get moving. The facility is under attack!" That voice again. Warning him. It sounded familiar, and he had a blurry face that he could put it to. He remembered briefly waking up before this, to a….Wilson and Miranda standing over him. He couldn't focus on that right now.

He pushed himself up, stopping only briefly to hold his ribs as they let out a pained protest from it, but he forced himself up. He wasn't going to lie on a hospital bed while things went to hell around him. He took a brief moment to look around. He wasn't wrong in thinking this was a med-bay, but he couldn't help but feel this was more of a science lab than it was a medical lab. And the clothes he was wearing was different as well than he was used to. A white and black suit, padded for comfort and flexible for ease of movement. There was a orange logo on his shoulders, but he couldn't mark it. But the evidence was clear enough. He wasn't in Alliance facility. Whatever part of him hadn't been on edge immediately perked up.

Gun fire and explosions rained above him, through a trio of windows he could look out of. Since it wasn't an alliance facility, he had no idea which of the two sides were nor could he guess. "There's a pistol and your armor in the locker on the other side of the room. Get it on! Hurry!" Miranda's voice urged. John bit back the urge to make a snappy comment at the voice, pulling himself out the bed and looking around for the locker. It wasn't hard. He rushed over, following the voice's direction. The armor he pulled out wasn't one he recognized, more advanced and updated than his standard issue armor, but as he started to get it on, he realized it seemed tailored to his body structure. Just another question on the top of his mind that needed to wait until he got out of his. There was another issue.

"This pistol doesn't have a thermal clip!" John said, looking inside the locker.

"It's a medbay!" The voice responded, sounding exasperated. "We'll get you a clip from…." An explosion sounded on the other end, and the voice went dead for a bit. John grumbled to himself, realizing that he was going to have to get out of here on his own for now. And maybe he could figure out who the hell was giving the orders around here. He opened the door, pushing his way through. He was met with a dead body immediately, lying in a puddle of their own blood, with a pistol in their hands and a spilled bundle of thermal clips next to him. He paused, long enough to check the man's pulse. After finding nothing, he picked up the clip and slapped it into his pistol. He needed to figure out where the hell he was.

* * *

He had been dead for two years. It was hard to believe. Scratch that. It was impossible to believe. He had never heard of anyone being brought back from the dead. He couldn't focus on that right now. So many questions and explanations filled his mind. He had really just been put in a death like state due to the injuries that the attack on the Normandy caused and maybe this group had been doing tons of complicated surgeries on him to put him back together. Or maybe he really was dead and this was some sort of complicated afterlife business about him coming to terms with his death. Considering that made his head hurt, and he shook his head to clear himself of this thought. "You okay, Shepard?" Jacob Taylor asked him, glancing worriedly at the man in front of him.

"I'm fine. Just….hard to process it all." He told him. Jacob Taylor was security at this station, one of the few that was still alive in the base it seems. He was the one that had given him an update on his situation, though he had conveniently left out any mention of who anyone in this station worked for. Still, John Shepard wasn't in a situation where he could stop for an interrogation or be distrustful of who was watching his backs. The Loki mechs may go down easy with a couple of shots, but there was enough on the station where they had numbers. Failing that, every second wasted was another second the YMIR mech might stumble across them and they didn't have the gear to tangle with the heavy mech. The image of the mech turning one of the station's personnel into nothing more than a pulp with a missile was going to stick with him. The man's last words were begging John Shepard to help, but John couldn't all because of some stupid glass.

"Alright. Look, if you need to stop for a couple minutes, I understand. I can't imagine trying to learn about this." Jacob assured, pausing as he looked behind them in case of an trailing enemies.

"I'm fine. We need to keep moving. Beside, I'm not exactly confident our pistols are going to do much but bounce off the armor of that YMIR mech running around." John said, giving a small smile at the end to give the false sense of being over his thoughts. "What's the quickest way to those shuttles?"

"Depends on where the mechs are the thickest. It's probably best if we head through….." Jacob paused as his radio started to receiving a signal. He pulled up his omni-tool, sharing the frequency with John, who quickly tuned in. Maybe it was this Miranda who'd woken him up. "Wilson. This is Jacob. I'm here with Commander Shepard. Just took out a wave of mechs in D wing." Wilson. John remembered a Wilson. The same way he could connect Miranda's face to a blurry face, he could connect Wilson's to another.

"Shepard's alive? How the hell…" Shepard frowned as Wilson said this. Something about the way he said it made him feel on edge. "Never mind. You need to get him out of there. Get to the service tunnels and head to the network control room." Jacob confirmed he heard this and turned to Shepard, who nodded in agreement that they should get moving. "Wilson's the Chief Medical tech. Answer directly to Miranda. Maybe he'll know where she is, or at the very least, who the hell hacked us."

"How well known is the base? Last I remember, I had made quite a few enemies, a lot with underground connections." John asked, as they started to move. The entrance to the service tunnels were close by and with any hope, would give them a safer route to their location. "I could probably give you ten off the top of my head that's capable of this."

"As far as I know, this base doesn't technically exist. Everyone here had to go through hours of non-disclosure paperwork and security screenings to make sure we weren't going to say anything. Honestly, the whole entire process was grueling but most of us went through with it. After all, we're bringing back Commander Shepard. Who would say no? Failing that, we had a ton of security measures that kept this station from showing up on scans and I haven't heard about any ship stumbling on us by accident." Jacob pointed out. "So, anyone who knew about this place was either the boss or anyone who works here."

"Well, since I don't know who you work for, that cuts out most of my suggestions. I suppose these papers prevent you from telling me who you work for right?" John guessed with a voice full of sarcasm. Jacob remained silent, but it gave Shepard the answer he needed. He sighed and shrugged, continuing forward as he spotted the service tunnel door. It was the only door in the hallway that hadn't been sealed off, no doubt a product of Wilson trying to help them along. However, no sooner had the door opened, a wave of gunfire met them, forcing Jacob and John to dive to the side to avoid taking any damage.

"Damn it, Wilson! This room is swarming with mech!" Jacob shouted as they used a combination of biotics and gunfire to tear apart the squad of mechs. In the end, both were left breathing hard and dealing with the slight uncomfortable feeling of their implants being used so much.

"The whole station is crawling with mechs! I'm doing my best!" Wilson defended his actions. Jacob paused for a moment, popping a new thermal clip into his gun and touching his ear.

"Find us another route out of here! Preferably one that doesn't lead straight into an enemy squad!" Jacob told the man on the other line.

"Alright. Give me a second." Wilson grumbled into the mic. John frowned as he thought about it, looking over at the camera in the corner of the wall. He could have warned them about the enemy squad at least. The suspicious feeling in his stomach returning again. It definitely wasn't helped that everyone on this station knew who he was, and he still had no idea who even put him together. "Oh….Oh god! They found me! Help!"

"Wilson? Where are you!?" Jacob demanded to know.

"Server room B! Hurry! They're out of control…..Oh, god! I'm hit! They shot me!" The transmission briefly cut out after that, with both John and Jacob turning their short jog into a sprint as they rushed up a set of stairs and tried to get to the server room in an attempt to get there faster. Rushing into the room, guns at the ready, they were met with several dead bodies lying on the ground. All except one, a bald man with a thinning mustache and beard, lying on the floor with clean shot through the leg. Blood was slowly pooling underneath him, but Shepard could tell from here that it wasn't seriously to be fatal yet, but it was definitely going to keep him from moving.

Jacob immediately bent over the leg, examining it. "Hmm, doesn't look too bad. There's some medi-gel on that wall over there. That should be enough to get him moving again." John nodded, walking over to the wall and opening the medigel container. He tossed one over to Jacob, who got to work on Wilson leg as John looked around. There were more dead humans here, three from where he was standing. These didn't look like the standard humans he was seeing around the base, as these seemed to be wearing outfits more akin to a scientist. He also couldn't help but notice that there was a lack of security droids in the area.

"Thanks Shepard, never thought that you'd end up saving my life. Guess that makes us even now." Wilson thanked as Jacob helped him up, the medigel already hard at work at numbing the pain and preventing infection. He leaned against the nearby crate, no doubt letting the medigel do a bit more work before he started to step on it. "I thought maybe I could shut down the security mechs. But whoever did this fried the whole system. It's completely irreversible." Wilson shrugged, motioning to the nearby console. Shepard turned to look at it as the conversation continued. The console was currently fried, the screen black and cracked, a bit of blood smeared over the screen. Shepard reached forward and touched it, pulling his hand back as the blood was a little fresh still.

"We didn't ask what you were doing. Why do you even have security mech clearance? You were in bio wing." Jacob responded to the comment.

"Didn't you hear me? I was trying to stop this. Besides, I got shot. How do you explain that?" Wilson defended. John sighed and shook his head. Now wasn't the time for this.

"Hey, as far as I know, both of you could be responsible for this. Let's find out who's to blame when we don't have an entire station's worth of security mechs gunning for our heads?" John commented, waving a hand in front of him as if to urge them along. Both looked fine dropping the argument. At least for now.

"Right. Shepard. We need to find Miranda. We can't leave her behind." Jacob commented.

"Forget about Miranda. She was over in D wing. The mechs were all over that sector. There's no way she's survived this long." Wilson brushed off, shaking his head in refusal.

"A bunch of mechs wouldn't drop Miranda. She's alive." Jacob ignored his response. John raised an eyebrow but he didn't add it. He didn't see Miranda's body anywhere in D Wing as he and Jacob fought through it, but there were large sections that he couldn't access. He can still hear the man's screams as he vainly hit the glass, hoping John could save him.

"Then where is she? Why haven't we heard from her? So there's either two possibilities. She's dead. Or she's a traitor!" Wilson stated, pushing himself off the crates and looking the two men in the eyes. John couldn't help but chuckle.

"As much as I appreciate the dramatic flair there, I don't think that's true. If she was, she wouldn't have woken me up and got me moving during the assault. I don't think she's dead either." John informed. Wilson frowned, clearly upset that his theory hadn't panned out and he shook his head.

"Okay. Maybe she's not a traitor. But that doesn't change facts. We're here. She's not. We need to save ourselves." Wilson corrected himself, motioning to a nearby door in the opposite direction. "The shuttle is only a few….." He paused as the doors opened and a small squad of mechs walked through. Each of the men dove for cover, their walls hitting their covers as the torrent of fire came at them. But, beyond the initial surprise, they were just LOKI mechs, and a well-used overloading of a nearby explosive crate was more than enough to wipe out the small squad.

"As much as I want to agree with you Jacob, Wilson is right. We don't have the arms to mount a rescue attempt into the station since we have enough trouble with the Loki mechs. I doubt our pistols will do much to even slow the YMIR mech that's running around D-Wing. The grenade launcher I found might do the trick, but that's taking the risk that I only saw one of them." John told them, standing up and brushing himself off. "I'd ask if this was PMC base, to see if you'd have a proper armory, but I doubt I'll get much of an answer." There was silence as John stood up, walking over to the path cleared from the explosion. Sparking and twisted mechs lie on the ground, and the stench of burnt wires made him crinkle his nose.

"Alright. We took 'em out. But this is getting tense. Shepard, if I tell you who we work for, will you trust me?" Jacob stated, pausing just behind Shepard.

"You sure you want to do this, Jacob?" Wilson interrupted, clearly unnerved by the iea of Jacob spilling the beans. John frowned as he considered that. Who did they work for that valued their secrecy this much?

"We won't make it if he's expecting a shot in the back." Jacob defended.

"If you want to piss off the boss, it's your ass, Jacob." Wilson surrendered, holding up his hands and stepping away.

"Well, don't keep me in suspense. You've piqued my interest." John asked, taking a moment to check the door in front of him to make sure it wasn't about to spew more mechs at them before turning his back to the door. For a moment he tried to give the silent order to watch the door, but the man showed now comprehension of the look. Or at the very least, he didn't care enough to follow the silent order. He sighed. Definitely not military then.

"The Lazarus Project, the program that rebuilt you…..It's funded and controlled by Cerberus." Jacob let the revelation hang in the air, watching John for his reaction. John let his face as stoic as he could, processing the information. He knew about Cerberus. All too familiar. They were responsible for the death of Admiral Kohaku and, more pressing on his mind, the slaughter of Akuze.

"I recognize Cerberus. I destroyed a couple of your operations. I'm surprised you'd want to bring me back. Most of my enemies would have been glad I was dead." John noted, calmly unfolding his arms so that his hand was a bit closer to his pistol. The action was not unnoticed by Jacob or Wilson, but neither chose to comment on the motion. Wilson mimicked the action slightly, but Wilson was a scientist, not a soldier. He wouldn't be able to be faster on the draw than Shepard would be.

"The Alliance had declared you dead. They gave up. And Cerberus spent a fortune to bring you back. I don't know why they decided to look the other way for the times you acted against them, and honestly, I doubt I'd get an answer if I asked." Jacob told him, with a shrug. He kept his hand away from his pistol. He was trying to get John to trust him and the group he was working for. Hostility was not the way to do it. "Look, I'd be suspicious too. But right now, we need to work together. I thought you deserved to know what's what. Once we're off the station, I'm sure we'll take you straight to the Illusive Man, and he'll explain everything." Unfortunately, near the end, Jacob didn't sound too sure on the idea, and John couldn't necessarily find fault with it. How was he supposed to trust a person named the Illusive Man would be on the up-and-up about his information?

"Look, I'm not going to pretend I'm not grateful for apparently resurrecting me. But Cerberus is a terrorist group. One that I have both a professional and a personal reason not to work with." John shook his head, giving a small glare towards Wilson as he spoke. Jacob he trusted well enough, but there was something about Wilson that was bothering him to no end. And John often found himself inclined to trust his gut with as often as it saved him against Saren.

"You can tell that to the boss. But after we've saved our asses. We're almost to the shuttles." Jacob said, sighing in a bit of disappointment.

* * *

Travel through the rest of the station was standard enough. Every room was either filled with the dead bodies of the former Lazarus station or another wave of mechs to be taken out via a combination of biotic powers, guns and overloads. John stopped just long enough to download a couple of extra video and audio logs from the Cerberus computers, to garner some information from them about the group or whatever they did to him. To be sorted through later, when an entire station wasn't vying for their heads. In fact, they were almost to the shuttle, opening the last door between them, when they found Miranda standing before the door. Without a word to any of them, she raised her gun and fired a shot straight into Wilson's head, causing the man to stumble back and crumple to the floor. John has his gun on her in an instant, wondering briefly if Wilson hadn't been wrong about Miranda betraying them.

"Miranda, what the hell are you doing?" Jacob exclaimed, sprinting over from where he had lagged behind. Miranda regarded him, her eyes calm and her stoic mask never breaking, even with the gun John had on her. She holstered her gun before answering.

"My job. Wilson betrayed us all." Miranda Lawson calmly explained. She had a tone to her voice, one that John was sure wasn't intentional, but came off as condescending nevertheless.

"Never heard of due process?" John asked.

"He sabotaged the security systems, killed my staff and would have tried to kill us." Miranad explained, her eyes lighting with a defensive fire. John met her gaze, not backing down. It was the fire of a commander angry at the loss of their subordinates, and John recognized it well. But, it unfortunately didn't lead much to get a grasp on who Miranda was.

"Are you sure Miranda? We've known Wilson for years! What if you're wrong?" Jacob questioned, staring at Wilson's dead body, as if his corpse would tell the answer.

"I'm never wrong. I thought you'd have learned that by now." Miranda chuckled slightly. Jacob gave a small sigh and shook his head, accepting it for now as he had little choice otherwise.

"Everyone can be wrong. You got any evidence to back up your claim?" John asked, still not lowering his gun. "Video? Audio? Or am I supposed to just take you at your good word?" Miranda scoffed slightly as she looked at him, almost as if she couldn't stand the lack of faith in her.

"Because, Shepard, I have no reason to lie. If this was an attempt to kill you, I would have tried to shoot you first instead of Wilson. Failing that, I've spent two years of my life trying to bring you back to life, so I'm not about to try to destroy all my hard work. Wilson destroyed the evidence by sabotaging the Server Room computers, which would have revealed whose credentials were used to access the system and would have held the video feed of the D-Wing. Wilson is a traitor, but he was smart. He planned this." Miranda explained, sounding almost annoyed as she explained this. "So, I'm afraid my good word is going to have to do for now." John frowned, wishing he had a more concrete reason to work off of, but put his gun down regardless.

"Can't fault you too much I suppose. Wilson has been making suspicious since he led us into that ambush in D wing." John sighed. "What's the next step?"

"We get on the shuttle and go. My boss wants to speak with you." Miranda told him. John crossed his arms and looked at her, remembering what Jacob had told him.

"You mean the Illusive Man? I know you guys work for Cerberus."

"Ah, Jacob. I should've known your conscience would get the better of you." Miranda almost chuckled, immediately guessing where John's knowledge had come from. Jacob was already defending himself as Miranda turned towards him.

"Lying to the Commander isn't the way to get him to join our cause." Jacob defended himself.

"Well, since we're getting everything out in the open, is there anything else you want to ask before we go, Commander?" Miranda asked, sighing with a bit of a exasperation. John crossed his arms as a large amount of questions fly through his head, always followed by the reasons they probably won't be answered. An organization like Cerberus values its secrecy and giving away that secrecy to him, someone who doesn't plan on sticking around long, is more than enough to warrant caution on his part.

"What about the other people on this station?" John commented, thinking back to D Wing and the number of dead bodies. He didn't know the size of the station, but it didn't seem like it was small in any form. That meant there was a large chance someone else was still alive and there was only the one shuttle it seemed.

"This is the evac area. If they're not here now, they aren't coming." Miranda shook her head.

"We can't leave without knowing for sure." John shook his head, grabbing his pistol and checking his thermal clips. He still had a fair amount and failing that, all he needed to do was take down a couple of LOKI mechs in order to get some more ammo. "We should circle back and check for any survivors or injured that can be moved."

"Don't you get it? The only one worth saving is you. Everyone else is expendable."

"That's not how I operate. If we're taking the only way off this station, I'm going to make damn sure that I'm not about to doom several people to die on a station with mechs aiming for their heads." John argued, taking offense to the idea. Miranda didn't look ready to back done, but to her credit, she kept her face a calm stoic, with a hint of that better-than-you air. It made John's eye twitch a little, but he did his best to prevent it from showing too much.

"Shepard, you are the very reason this station exists. All these people have only one goal. Make sure you come back to life and then keep you that way." Miranda explained, crossing her arms. "Foolishly charging back into the station and getting killed is a good way to make sure the ones that have died did so in vain."

"I'm not saying we charge back in. But I'm also not agreeing to possibly letting several people die simply because I happened to get here first." John shook his head. They didn't have time to argue about this. "Your drones operate on a IFF based on line of sight right? They didn't track you down when you giving me orders over the intercom until Wilson sent them right?"

"Yeah. They're meant to react, not to seek unless ordered." Jacob nodded, being the most familiar with the system. "Without Wilson sending them after us, we should be safe."

"If Miranda can connect to the station's intercom again, how much danger would we be put in for sending out a station wide alert to get to the shuttle in the next half hour or get left behind?" John asked, scratching his chin as he looked at Jacob. Jacob thought about it for a moment before shrugging.

"Ideally, the mechs would ignore it unless ordered to respond to it." Jacob explained. "But that won't stop any mechs from following any survivors or stumbling upon us in the meantime."

"And what makes you so sure that I have access to the station's intercom?" Miranda asked, crossing her arms. John looked at her.

"What? Are you saying a smart woman like yourself wouldn't leave a back way into the intercom just in case you needed to access it again?"John challenged. A small fire of a challenge sparked in Miranda's eyes, which is what John was hoping for, but she wasn't taking the bait as much as John needed. John sighed, taking a moment to scan his surroundings, making sure their position was still safe. "In thirty minutes, if no one shows up, we call it and assume the worst case scenario." He compromised.

"Miranda…." Jacob mentioned from his spot. Though John wouldn't know exactly what it was, it was a shared message of the fact that they couldn't force John onto the shuttle without risking future cooperation from his behalf. The two shared a look between themselves for a brief moment before Miranda sighed in slight defeat and brought up her omni-tool.

"Twenty minutes, Shepard, and not a second more. After which, we get on the shuttle and take off."

* * *

 **Whelp, you guys enjoyed the first "real" chapter of the FF:R. I added the things for obvious reason. I never did like how easily Miranda could convince a Paragon Shepard to leave the station. I've also done my best to work into the Paragon, Charming nature into the story. This John is a bit more joking than the previous, so I'm trying to play into that character a bit more.**

 **For those wondering, since, I forgot to elaborate in earlier chapters, Main Shepard is a Vanguard and Female Shepard is a Infiltrator with minor biotic capabilities. Bit of a mistake I made in the first story, failing to realize that as twins, one have Biotics and the other not...was a bit of a gap in logic. Ooops! Don't worry, Femshep will still maintain a mostly infiltrator nature of the class, just with some minor abilities, like she is a sentinel but with a way heavier focus on tech.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Hello! Chapter 3 of the story. Picks up mostly where the other left off. Not much I really have to say about this chapter before the fact.** **Still struggling with the new name, so I hope that Forever Family Revamp doesn't stay as its name. As well as me probably taking the description and making a new one. Can't rely on recycled things. So...that's all...** **Uh...Read, Enjoy, Review.**

* * *

"I see. It's unfortunate the effort was in vain. Many valuable scientists and operatives were lost on that base. But fortunately, their efforts weren't." The Illusive Man sighed as he read over the report that Miranda had handed him. Jacob, Miranda and Shepard had arrived at the Cerberus Outpost not a couple minutes ago, confirming his suspicion of the fall of the Lazarus Facility. He had figured something had gone wrong when Miranda didn't report in at her usual time, but he was glad to see the attack ultimately failed. He had had faith Miranda would ensure Shepard would survive whatever attack had befallen the station. "And you're sure that Commander Shepard is completely back to normal? No side effects or mental instability from the resurrection?"

"None so far. His memory is still intact as far as we can tell, he was able to recall the events in the Skyllian Blitz, who the current human councilor was, and his actions of Virmire. And Operative Taylor vouched for his combat capabilities, as the two were forced to fight their way to the shuttle. And psychological effects are either suppressed for the moment or non-existent. I wish we had time to do more extensive testing but we couldn't afford it." Miranda informed, her hands folded calmly behind her back and her chin up. "But, I'm worried about his cooperation. Operative Taylor informed me that Shepard seemed to adamant in the idea that he would never work with Cerberus and he didn't seem too keen on listening to my warnings back at the Lazarus station."

The Illusive Man took a long drag from his cigarette and flicked a bit of ash in the ashtray next to him before he answered. "We knew this would be an obstacle from day one. Have a little faith and I'm sure things will come together. Once the commander learns about the current situation, I'm sure he'll change his tune." He assured Miranda. Miranda nodded, but judging from the scowl on her face, she wasn't entirely convinced. "I know you think your solution would have been the best case scenario, but we couldn't risk it affecting the commander's mental abilities."

"Sir, with all due respect, Commander Shepard is a war hero and an amazing soldier, but there's no guarantees that he'll be good asset for Cerberus to have. There's nothing stopping him from just abandoning the mission and returning to the Alliance or the Council. It would make the loss of many of those scientists and the resources used a waste. My solution would have prevented that." Miranda preached again, still upset she had been denied. She had nothing but the utmost respect for Johnathon Shepard, but Johnathon Shepard was also an enemy of Cerberus at one time. The Illusive Man sighed and sat back in his chair, folding his hands in front of him.

"I understand your worry, Miranda. But this is a risk we need to be willing to take. But be assured, I do not simply plan to allow Commander Shepard total control of the resources. You and Taylor will be assigned to the Commander's team to check out a recent human colony that had been hit. Since I have the utmost faith that the commander will keep the protection of human colonies, you are going to be assigned as his second in command. I'm currently putting together a crew that I believe is going to make the Commander comfortable in his role as part of Cerberus, so I hope it will address some of your concerns." The Illusive Man mentioned, pulling up a variety of electronic dossiers as he spoke. Miranda could make out a couple of them before the dossiers were dismissed. "For now, we should take thing slow. Now, I believe it's time for me to speak with the Commander. Would you send him up?" Miranda nodded and the Illusive Man watched as she walked off the communication pad.

* * *

John sighed as he stared at the shuttle, tapping his fingers against his armor. His newly acquired guns rested on his back, taken from the station, an M-23 Katana on his lower back, an M-3 Predator pistol at his hip and an M-8 Avenger Assault rifle on his back. All said to be the latest models after his two year absence, and with little else to choose from, he didn't have much of an ability to negotiate. Besides, as it stood, he wasn't entirely confident about accepting too many gifts from Cerberus. He might be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt when it came to the protection of human colonies, but he only trusted the organization as far as he could throw them. The tense silence between him and the two Cerberus operatives during the entirety of the shuttle ride towards Freedom's Progress showed him that this feeling wasn't his alone.

The Illusive Man had informed him that human colonies were going missing en masse, and the Alliance wasn't sure what was going on. No colony had any evidence of what was happening and since all of the colonies were on the Terminus system, there wasn't much the Alliance could do to force protection on the people. At the moment, the disappearances were being blamed on pirates or mercenaries. If the Illusive Man was telling him the truth, John wasn't sure what the three of them were supposed to learn from the colony that the Alliance hadn't been able to learn with the several other colonies beforehand. At the very least, the lack of obvious clues meant they weren't Batarians. "So, what can you tell me about this colony we're going to?" Shepard asked, trying to at least break the silence in some way.

"Freedom's Progress? It's a typical human settlement in the Terminus System. They had a small military force for protection, supplemented by mechs and security drones. Average in every way, really. Completely unremarkable….until the disappearance." Miranda informed him, leaning forward.

"So was Mindoir before the Batarian raid." John noted, shaking his head. He hoped this wasn't anything like Mindoir. "I'm not sure what your Illusive Man expects us to find here, that wasn't found at any other colony."

"At the other colonies, official investigators got there first. Sometimes looters or salvage teams as well. The information that Freedom's progress has gone dark is fairly recent and we're hoping to be the first one there this time. Maybe find clues before somebody else disturbs the scene." Jacob spoke up, leaning forward as well. John bit his tongue on that the official investigators had way more experience investigating than he did and focused on something more mission related.

"The colonists?"

"Nothing. No signs of attack, no corpses. Not even a trace of unusual genetic material to give us a clue." Jacob informed, taking a moment to shake his head and shrug. "It's like they just...disappear, and we've got no target to go after." John nodded, biting the inside of his lip as Jacob reconfirmed what the Illusive Man had already told him. There was one of other thing to address.

"I need to know now, before we land, are you sure you're going to be comfortable following my orders?" He wasn't trying to assert his dominance as the commanding officer aggressively, but he needed to gauge just how likely he would be dealing with a renegade element from one of them should he give an order they don't like.

"We didn't bring you back to second-guess you, Commander. If the Illusive Man says you're in charge, then you're in charge." Jacob affirmed, with a stern nod. Miranda nodded in confirmation as well, showing that they were on the same page. John nodded in acceptance. He knew that Jacob's Alliance training would mean he could at least trust him to follow orders. But he was more worried about Miranda. She seemed like someone who was used to being in charge and he didn't know to what extent she was going to listen to him. He shook his head.W He had to trust both of them were smart enough not to question his decisions in the field, and move on. Since he had nothing more to ask about the colony, the silence enveloped the shuttle once more as neither side continued the conversation. He sighed and puts his head back against the cool metal of the Cerberus shuttle, closing his eyes as he thought, letting out a slow exhale. He wondered how much longer it wa to Freedom's Progress and dealing with this tense air. Thankfully, it seem that John did not have to suffer, as the slight turbulence that hit the shuttle was a clear sign of atmosphere.

"Alright, the first priority should be to check for survivors." John ordered, pulling off his assault rifle as he stood up near the door.

"That's unlikely, Commander. No one was left at the other colonies. They were completely deserted." Miranda told him, standing up behind him. Jacob sighed, pulling out his shotgun and taking the other side.

"It'd be nice to find someone. Anything's better than a ghost town." Jacob commented. The shuttle shook firmly and John could feel his stomach flipping as they quickly descended, their speed coming down.

"Regardless, we need to keep our eyes open. There's always a chance someone is still alive in this colony. Barring that, we should keep an eye out for any surveillance systems, any drones with recording equipment, or anything along those lines. Something that can give us a clue at whose been attacking the colonies." John mentioned. He was sure that they had already been told to look for these very things or had the common sense to think of it themselves, but it never hurt just to be sure they were all on the same page. The two simply gave a confirmation of his orders, and with that, the shuttle doors opened, releasing the three into the abducted Colony of Freedom's Progress.

* * *

The search through the first half of the colony went about as well as expect. No evidence of a firefight, or a struggle of any kind, throughout the entire colony. In fact, it looked as though most of the colonists simply stood up and left their during the middle of their dinner, which now sat rotting on the tables, unfinished. Scans showed nothing odd. The entire place had a stillness to it, one that was unnerving and caused the hairs on the back of John's neck to stand on end. It was almost a relief when a group of LOKI mechs started to shoot at them, breaking the eerie atmosphere. The mechs went down fairly easy, with the combined fire of the three of them destroying them as well as the FENRIS mech that was released shortly afterwards. "Those mechs shouldn't have been hostile. They should have recognized us as human." Jacob noted, checking the nearest Loki to make sure the mech was dead.

"What state were the other colonies defenses in?" Shepard asked, looking over a FENRIS mech. The LOKI mechs had just been developed and were being put into use after the Battle of the Citadel, so he was familiar with those. But these FENRIS mechs were new. And they gave one hell of a shock to his barriers when they got close. He wondered what else he missed in the two years he missed. What else had changed? How had the Alliance changed? Was Anderson still Councilor? Where was his crew? Two years might not seem like a long time at first, but it seemed like every small thing just served to remind him that he missed two years of development.

"No. Any mechs had been disabled at all the previous colonies according to the reports of Alliance investigators." Miranda shook her head, lowering her weapon as she leaned down over one of the mechs. Her omni-tool sprung to life as she scanned one of the LOKI mechs. "Hmm, someone programmed the mechs to attack on sight. We're not alone here." She informed as she looked over the data.

"Just another routine mission." John muttered to himself, with a dry chuckle to himself. He stood up from where he was standing over the FENRIS, drawing his assault rifle once more. "Right. Stick close. This proves that someone is on this colony, for better or worst. Maybe they know what happened."

"Or they are a scavenger who showed up and got spooked when we landed." Jacob suggested, getting back into position near John. With nothing more to be said, the three powered through another house, once more abandoned, bedsheets tossed to the side as if the occupants just got out of bed and disappeared. They were briefly ambushed by two more mechs, another FENRIS and LOKI, but the two didn't stand much of a chance underneath the combined firepower and overloads the squad pushed out. They approached the next building, stopping for a moment to rewire the lock so that the door can open.

As the door slid open, John was met with a sight that he definitely didn't expect. Three Quarians were sitting in a circle, overlooking an omni-tool, discussing data. They turned as the door opened, and responded hostilely, grabbing nearby assault rifles and getting into an aggressive stance. John and his team responded in kind, drawing their weapons and meeting the Quarians, leading to a tense stand-off in the middle of the house, either side waiting for the first one to fire. It only lasted a moment, before another quarian, getting in front of the lead Quarian and shoving his rifle to the side. "Prazza, you said you'd let me handle this." She turned, holding a three-fingered hand in front of her as she faced the group. "Wait…..Shepard?"

"Tali?" John stated, equally as shocked. He turned, waving down the guns of his own squadmates, both showing some understanding of what he meant. Unfortunately, the Quarians, while they had lowered their weapons, did not drop their aggressive stances.

"I'm not taking any chances with Cerberus operatives!" The one named Prazza growled, trying to get around Tali, who moved to block him again.

"Put those weapons down!" Tali ordered, the command in her voice causing Prazza and the two Quarians to reluctantly lower their weapon. John raised an eyebrow in surprise. Guess more than just mechs had changed in those two years. Tali turned back towards him, her glowing eyes squinting just slightly behind the visor, looking him up and down in a scrutinizing matter. "Shepard? Is that…..you're alive?" John thought for a bit, wondering if there was a way he could prove his identity to Tali.

"Remember when I gave you that Geth data, Tali? Did it help you complete your pilgrimage?" John asked, his second question genuine. The skepticism in Tali's body slowly vanished and her eyes softened a bit.

"Yes, it did." She confirmed, her voice much softer this time. She turned back towards Prazza. "Prazza, weapons down. This is definitely Commander Shepard." Surprisingly, Prazza seemed to accept this as well, folding up his Avenger rifle and placing it on his back.

"Why is your old commander working for Cerberus?" Prazza asked, his voice still betraying his distrust.

"I don't know." Tali answered, shaking her head and she looked towards John. "Maybe we should ask." John paused for a moment, unsure how to explain the situation. It sounded too surreal to believe when he thought about explaining it to Tali, him dying and being resurrected through cybernetic implants and all manner of scientists. In fact, he wasn't even sure that he believed that it happened.

"I...almost died Tali. Apparently, Cerberus spent the past two years completely rebuilding me. In return, they want me to investigate attacks on the human colonies in the Terminus Systems." John stated, making the reluctance in his voice a bit clear as he spoke.

"Likely story. No organization would devote that many resources to bring back one soldier." Prazza scoffed, shaking his head.

"You haven't seen Shepard in action, Prazza. Trust me. It was money well spent." Tali assured. John chuckled a bit, and shook his head at those words. Flattering as they may be, he wasn't exactly sure he disagreed with Prazza. It seemed like a lot of resources to use on just him. Tali turned back towards him, turning so that she was facing him directly. "Perhaps we can work together if you're investigating these colonies. We're here looking for a young quarian named Veetor. He was here on Pilgrimage. If we can get to him, he might be able to tell you what happened here."

"Isn't that a little strange? A quarian visiting a remote huma colony?" John noted. It was true that he didn't have much experience with Quarians outside of Tali, but he had spent enough time on remote human colonies during his hunt for Saren, that any alien was rare, let alone Quarians.

"Quarians can choose where they go on Pilgrimage. Veetor liked the idea of helping a small settlement. He was always…..nervous in crowds." Tali informed.

"She means he was unstable." Prazza interrupted, stepping forward so he was standing beside Tali. Tali folded her arms at the interruption, narrowing her eyes, but let Prazza continue. "Combine that with damage to his suit's CO2 scrubbers and an infection from an open-air exposure, and he's likely delirious on top of that."

"When he saw us, he hid in a warehouse on the far side of town. We suspect he's also responsible for programming the mechs to attack anything that moves." Tali informed, turning back towards John. "We've been trying to get to him for some time now, but the mechs are proving to be difficult. The FENRIS knocked out our shields if they get close and most of the LOKI's are armed with submachineguns."

"Veetor's the only one who can tell us what happened here. Both of us are going to have an easier time getting to him working together." John agreed with Tali. However, they seemed to be the only ones who thought this was a wise decision. John noticed the instant Tali agreed to it, the Quarian team behind her seemed to bristle with hostility at the very idea. John also noticed that his own team seemed to shift slightly at the suggestions, but unlike the Quarians, they didn't openly disagree.

"Now we're working with Cerberus?" Prazza commented angrily, speaking what all the Quarians were no doubt thinking.

"No Prazza, you're working for me. If you can't handle that, go wait on the ship." Tali responded. Prazza let out a low grumble, that John only knew was real due to his speaker lighting up slightly. Still, despite his clear reluctance about the fact, he quieted and returned to standing with the fellow quarians, who had gone back to at least pretending to continue their work. "Head for the warehouse through the center of the colony. We'll circle around the far side and draw off some of the drones to clear you a path."

"Alright. Make sure to keep in radio contact." John said, opening his omni-tool and giving them a frequency that the entire team could use to stay in contact.

"Will do. Good luck, Shepard. Whatever happens…..it's good to have you back." Tali said. She paused, almost as if she was hesitating to turn around and lead her group, before she gave a confident nod and lead her group out of the house. He also didn't fail to notice the slight clenching of Miranda's jaw at his decision, but she didn't voice her complaint aloud. He made it a mental note to ask about the tension between Quarians and Cerberus, before pulling his gun and heading on his own way.

* * *

 **And that's a chapter! I'm glad to be able to share this with you guys, the third chapter in the revamp. In all honesty this chapter mostly speaks for itself. I was originally going to have the conversation with the Illusive Man and Shepard play out, but it honestly doesn't add much that isn't explained later. I'm also trying to show more of Miranda and flesh her out, as opposed to using her as a bit of a Scrappy like I did in my first version. She's still going to be a bit of a...difficult person to start, so be forewarned.**


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